“Tomber des cordes” is a French expression that means “to be raining cats and dogs” or to rain very heavily. Literally, it means “to fall some ropes.” The saying dates back to the end of the 17th century. This idiom has variants such as “pleuvoir des cordes” (to rain ropes) and “tomber des hallebardes” (to…
The future simple (“le futur simple” in French) is a verb tense that enables you to talk about things that will happen in the future. In English, it corresponds to usages such as “I will” (do something), “I’ll” (do something), “I will not” (do something) or “I won’t” (do something). To conjugate a verb in…
“faire la pluie et le beau temps” means to be all powerful, to decide everything, to be the decision maker in a group of people. The French words literally mean “to make rain and nice weather.” It refers to the theoretical ability to control the weather, which would make someone extremely powerful. The saying dates…
“avoir du sang de navet” means literally “to have turnip blood.” It really means to lack vigor or courage. The inside of a turnip is white and its juice is also white. Red blood is strong, courageous blood. It gets its redness from the iron it contains. So to have white blood, like the inside of…
The French expression “en rester comme deux ronds de flan” is an idiomatic expression that means “to be left speechless,” “to be perplexed,” or “to be stunned.” It is used to describe someone who is so surprised or shocked by something that they are unable to respond or react. Some believe that the origin of…
French noun gender is a way of categorising all nouns (naming words) in the French language into either the masculine category or the feminine category. English used to have noun genders but they have all been lost, with the exception of ships being traditionally regarded as feminine, as in the phrase, “Bless her and all…
Do you feel like the little girl in this meme? Never knowing the gender of a noun in French? There is in fact a logical reason for the gender of a washing machine in French. A washing machine is a “lave-linge” in French. That word is made up of two individual words: “lave” which comes…
This French idiom means literally, “the English have disembarked.” From 1815 to 1820, the English Army, wearing their traditional red uniforms, occupied France in their war against Napoléon. After they left, Parisians started using this phrase to mean, “to have her period,” since the flow of unwelcome English invaders wearing red coats resembled red menstrual…
“être dans les choux” is a French saying that literally means “to be in the cabbages.” What it means really, however, is “to fail, to be in a bad situation, to be ranked last or to lose.” An equivalent English expression is “to be up the creek without a paddle.” It comes from the paronymy (the…
“dormir sur ses deux oreilles” is a French saying that means “to sleep deeply, to be perfectly tranquil, or to sleep without worry.” Surprisingly, there is no known source for this expression and no known origin. It seems to have appeared without anyone being able to track when it was first used or by whom….